Controversial Kannada Film Titles

Publicity — good or bad — is always welcome in tinsel town. From star tantrums to actor replacements, link-ups, leaked songs, and more, filmmakers pull out all stops to ensure that their films stay in the news.

Publicity — good or bad — is always welcome in tinsel town. From star tantrums to actor replacements, link-ups, leaked songs, and more, filmmakers pull out all stops to ensure that their films stay in the news. In Sandalwood, though, the quest to stay in the news seems to begin much earlier — sometimes as early as when naming the project. Take, for instance, filmmaker Srinivasa Raju's upcoming film with Upendra. Currently called Basavanna, the film has run into trouble even before shooting has begun, what with the promotional material deemed offensive and politicians calling for a change in title. While sources tell us that the makers are contemplating a new name, Brahmanna, they add that that too seems unlikely, given that Upendra has another film called Brahma in the pipeline. There's also the fact that the new title sounds too similar to the local pronounciation of a Brahmin. Here's a look at some other films that had much ado about a name...

PREM ADDADirector-actor Prem and filmmaker BK Srinivas got into war of words over the title Adda. While Srinivas held the rights to Adda, Prem called his film, the remake of the Tamil film Subramaniapuram, Prem Adda. To resolve the issue, Prem was asked to print the title on all promotional material in equal sized fonts. But he stuck his ground and used a smaller font for the 'Prem' bit of the title.

ONLY VISHNUVARDHANAThe family of late actor Vishnuvardhan allegedly objected to the use of his name as a film title. But producers Dwarakish and his son Yogish, who made the late actor's last film Apthamitra, added 'Only' to their title Vishnuvardhana, to imply that there can be only one Vishnuvardhana ever, and released the film.

MASTIUpendra's film Masti ran into troubled waters when it was alleged that the film, which had elements of violence, would be disrespectful to popular Kannada writer, Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, who is known as Masti. The underworld drama was released without a change in title.

KANNADADA KIRAN BEDIWhen Malashri she set out to play cop in a film called Kiran Bedi, she allegedly got into the bad books of real-life top cop Kiran Bedi, who objected to the use of her name for a film. The solution: The makers just gave the film a 'local' twist by prefixing Kannadada to the title.

VARADANAYAKAShortly after the dispute over the title of Only Vishnuvardhana was resolved, Sudeep's next ran into trouble, when producer Surappa Babu asked for a change, given that he had registered a film called Varada. Varadanayaka was released without a change in title, as Varada never took off.

YAARIVANUTitled Satyananda initially, Madan Patel's film was in trouble, after Swami Nityananda objected to its content, given that the promotional material with lead actor Chetan had an uncanny resemblance to the swami. While the film's release was not banned, it hit theatres with a new title.

MYSORE MALLIGEA new version of TS Nagabharana's 1992 classic, Mysore Mallige, the 2013 film, has a barely clad actress Roopa Nataraj. Nagabharana, has, requested the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, not to grant the title to the new film.